# RIP Gregory Golodoff

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gregory-golodoff/994956>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 21, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gregory-golodoff/994956 "2023-12-21T22:56:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gregory-golodoff/994956/1 "2023-12-21T22:56:35Z")

</div>

Who is that, you ask? Mr. Golodoff was the last surviving Alaskan out of 41 who were captured by the Japanese in WWII on the Aleutian island of Attu. When the Japanese invaded Attu, they killed the one person who could have alerted the mainland and shipped the rest of the village back to Japan, where they suffered greatly at the hands of the Japanese. Gregory was three years old at the time, and three of his siblings died in captivity. Forced to work long hours in a clay mine, the captives survived by eating garbage or whatever else they could find.

Mr. Golodoff was 84.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gregory-golodoff/994956/2 "2023-12-21T23:07:18Z")

</div>

> **[Death of Last Surviving Alaskan Taken in WWII Rekindles Memories](https://www.voanews.com/a/death-of-last-surviving-alaskan-taken-in-wwii-rekindles-memories/7392182.html)**
>
> Gregory Golodoff was the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured the remote Alaska island of Attu during World War II

Stranger

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gregory-golodoff/994956/3 "2023-12-22T00:05:32Z")

</div>

Thanks for that. I think the ADN story may be firewalled, so I didn’t link to it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gregory-golodoff/994956/4 "2023-12-22T00:46:09Z")

</div>

I just did a unit with my students on the battle of Attu. None of them had heard of it; indeed, most had some pretty sketchy knowledge of WWII in general.

I’ll mention this when we resume in January.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gregory-golodoff/994956/5 "2023-12-22T02:03:05Z")

</div>

> [@Lancia](#):
>
> I just did a unit with my students on the battle of Attu.

You’re probably familiar with The Thousand Mile War, by Garfield? If not, it’s a good accounting of the Aleutian Campaign.